This is primarily a blog of book reviews. I simply just love reading and I like to record my informal thoughts and reviews on books that I come across. I prefer books with very high stakes so I mostly read crime, noir, and horror/sci-fi, but I enjoy any great story. I'll go for anything as long as it's good!

*Explanation of the Blog Title:
A friend mentioned that there is a stereotype that most black men don't read fiction. Well, I'm here to prove otherwise!

Sunday, June 25, 2017

BATMAN: THE COURT OF OWLS by Scott Snyder

With his first volume in the New 52 Batman rebranding, Scott Snyder brings the Caped Crusader back to the basics! I'm normally not a fan of the Batman stories that feature him going up against monsters, aliens, or other super fantasy bad guys. I gravitate towards the stories that are more grounded. So I really enjoyed Snyder's take here. In this story, Batman goes up against a secret society that has ruled Gotham from the shadows all the way throughout history. It's an organization that exists with the citizens as a myth, especially with Bruce Wayne, who seems to refuse to believe that there is a villain that has eluded him all these years, and still manages to rule his city.

I love that the story really focuses on Batman being what he started out as, a detective, going into deep investigation mode to track down the people responsible for a series of mysterious deaths in the city. I really enjoyed the focus on Gotham's history, the legacy of the Waynes, and their relationship with the Court, building more levels on the Gotham City mythology. The fact that the shadowy Court is, for the most part, grounded in reality but still feels like they could be a major threat to Batman, really sets a level of tension that really works. There are some cool ideas here and let's see what happens in the sequel!